One day, somebody will die

A fire at a cannabis factory. If there was a fire at a brewery we would be asking questions about how we can improve safety regulations.

An illegal product is beyond our ability to improve the methods used to make its production safe. Prohibition is the cause of the problem. Not the solution.

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Cannabis-factory-goes-up-in.6390793.jp

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

Sweden conjures up a pleasant image as a nation. Nice people, clean streets, green countryside (outside of winter) and exporters of bank holiday flat packed furniture contentment. The enduring attraction to Larsson’s first part of the Millennium trilogy hints at a much darker place.
Larsson’s Sweden is a more culturally small c conservative place, with more than a suggestion of a socially suffocating a restrictive society. And in Larsson’s world, clearly not all Swedes consent to being part of this part of this country. This is a novel about those outsiders as well as the mystery that grips the reader from the very beginning. The girl of the title, Salander, is clearly the most prominent embodiment of those outsiders, but there are others too.
This novel has echoes of Iain Bank’s Complicity and The Crow Road, and is just as entertaining. At times the writing is a wee bit clunky, but this could be down to the translation. The plot is incredibly addictive.
Possibly this review should have waited until LBR has read parts two and three of the trilogy, but wanted to pose these two rhetorical questions:
• Will Vanger and Wennerstrom continue, and provide further sub-plots?
• Or, is the only connection throughout the trilogy Salander and Blomkvist?

This book gets 3/5.

Why England really lost at Sock-aa

LBR is unable to better the analysis of both Chris Waddle and Paul Mason.

Turn on Radio 5 and you will hear Waddle bemoan the structure and coaching of English Football from junior level to the higher echelons of the Premier League and the FA. He cites that having only one ex-pro in the FA, Trevor Brooking, as being symptomatic and a cause of the current national team’s malaise.

Mason’s view is on the BBC website and makes an interesting analogy with greedy bankers: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2010/06/england_the_lehman_brothers_of.html). Here is a snippet:
“But if you look at what's wrong with English football it starts with the junior game, where there's a horrendously physical and low-skill philosophy preached; then, for some reason, all the clever people get weeded out by the club system so that the words "intelligent, inventive England player" are impossible to write; finally the money pouring into the English premiership in the form of leveraged club buyouts allows club managers to buy their way out of having to train and develop English talent and we only find out once every four years what is wrong.
England's outstanding badness in World Cup 2010 must be a symptom of something bigger: the fact that we've got the most expensive, highest leveraged club system - and that none of our players play outside it - must have contributed to the weakening of commitment to the national colours, the evisceration of upcoming talent, the creation of an unmanageable team of frightened individuals, each of whom will now be dictating a valedictory ghost-written column to their chosen tabloid newspaper before getting on with life as a millionaire.
Like failed bankers they will pay no penalty for failure other than public opprobrium and, as everybody in high finance knows, you can live with that as long as you own a Lamborghini.
Basically, we've just seen the Lehman Brothers of football and it was not pretty.”

LBR agrees with both Waddle and Mason. Blame the manager, the ref or lack of technology if you want. But children playing football on full size pitches turn into pros that cannot dribble past international-class defenders. Lampard’s goal should have stood. If he and some of his colleagues were able to dribble and beat a man, then it may not have mattered.

The Labour leadership and medical cannabis: the Milibands

In the last couple of weeks both the Milibands visited Yorkshire in an attempt to convince Labour members to elect them to the leader of the party.

Both performed well, although one impressed your correspondent more than the other. But more of that later.
One question that the both candidates were asked was as follows;
"In the USA 14 states have legislated to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from: Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Glaucoma, Cancer, Aids, Parkinson's Disease and Arthritis. A 15th state, Arizona, will legislate on this issue in November. 72 per cent of Arizonans support implementing the new law.
The issue is legalising medical cannabis.
Do you support legalising medical cannabis in the UK? Or do you believe patents should be arrested for taking cannabis?"

Now, it would be nice to report that either of the candidates supported measures to help protect patients. Neither did, and would not have been realistic to expect otherwise. It was interesting to see how they handled the question, which of itself was important in the context of becoming leader of the Labour party. Both admitted they had never been asked the question before, which again is important to see how they handled themselves with a question that is unexpected.

David Miliband said he did not want to make any comments about Cannabis in case the comment was taken out of context. But he did not want to see patients arrested either.

Ed Miliband said he didn't want to give me a glib answer and would talk to me about the issue afterwards, as he did not know much about it. After the meeting we then had a wee chat about the issue.

Now their replies were very similar. But my judgement is that Ed was warmer of the two and gave a slightly more impressive answer. Still David Miliband still looks very prime ministerial and very good on TV. My vote is still up for grabs.

"The Killing Jar" by Nicola Monaghan

This highly recommended novel is about the coming of age of a girl, Kerrie-Ann, that is surrounded by drugs. The first comment to make is that is very well written. The author captures the tone of voice of the protagonist by subtly changing that tone as she grows older.

It is a short book, just shy of 300 pages, and a gripping page turner with a wonderful turn of phrase. “He was good looking, Phil, and he knew it. Had the kind of eyes what hit you in the clit” being this reviewer's favorite.

A fascinating discussion would be whether this piece of fiction suggests the criminalisation of drug use does more harm than good. Thankfully Monaghan allows the reader to ponder this issue for themselves. This is Monaghan's first novel, and she deserves a lot of credit. This book gets 4/5.

Jamaica on drugs: was it worth it?

Finally the Jamaican police have arrested Christopher "Dudus" Coke. In May, the police mounted an operation in the Tivoli Gardens area of Kingston, to arrest Christopher Coke. 70 people died in the operation.

One arrest for 70 killed. Coke now faces extradition to the USA. No serious thinker on the drug market is going to suggest that with Christopher Coke out of the way the streets of Kingston will now be drug free. More likely the authorities have now created a job opening for one of his rivals.

So was arresting one man worth the lives of 70 people?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/latin_america/10386028.stm "Jamaican 'drug lord' Christopher 'Dudus' Coke arrested"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/latin_america/10173302.stm "Jamaica violence 'linked to US drug market'"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10386316.stm "Christopher "Dudus" Coke arrested"

VAT rise and the drugs continue to flow

From 17.5% to 20%, the price of all the goods and services we buy and consume has got just that bit more expensive.

According to Robert Peston of the BBC, this will raise £13bn. This is an interesting figure. According to Transform, ending the prohibition of drugs could save the economy £14bn a year. Every year. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/apr/07/drugs-policy-legalisation-report)

Yet a failed drug war continues and the drugs continue to flow around the UK. Shame we dont have a politics that is ready to realistically assess a failed policy and change it.

More thoughts on intoxication and disco biscuits

There an underlining problem with drug-based stories. The authors, in general, are aware of the injustice and hypocrisies of the drug laws and in turn many of their characters reflect this view. Yet there is no evidence to suggest that the generation that went through the 1980s and 1990s drug scene are now in favour of drug policy reform now that their habit is well behind them and have families of their own.

This should not be surprising to us. Baby boomers of the 1960s and 1970s, from Clinton onwards displayed the same inertia, whether they inhaled or not.

One argument you commonly hear against ending the war on drugs is the binge drinking we have in our towns and cities on a weekly basis. Over the last twenty years the culture of drinking has changed. mainly from drinking at a local pub, to concentrated drinking in town centres.

Concentration of drinking in one area: hmmm, bad – because it concentrates people chasing the same taxis and increases the potential for violence. But it also gives law enforcement the opportunity to concentrate resources.

If you don’t think that is a good enough reason – then go speak to your local authority and tell them to refuse the money on rent and licenses that late night bars bring in. Your Council Tax bills may rise. But the really good news in is that alcohol is legal. Being so means we can control it with prices, age restrictions, quality control, location of sale, and the time of day alcohol is sold at.

That is not something we can say about drugs.

Bouncers, disco biscuits and bevvy: - Intoxication since the 1990s

On a night out to a UK town centre over the last twenty years, not much has changed, or at least the changes are subtle or superficial. One apparent change appears to be the behaviour of bouncers. Once upon a time bouncers had the ability to prevent entry on the smallest of pretexts (usually trainer-shoe related.) This is still true of course, but trainers are more likely to be tolerated in nightclubs now than before.
Has fashion changed? Or has our societies’ standards slipped and we now accept that casual wearing poor trainer wearing scum will want to get a drunk in the early hours of the morning? Of course nightclubs always had a myth of exclusivity surrounding them which never met the reality. No dress code keeps scum out of a drinking establishment. It just allows scum that can afford to wear a suit and a pair of shoes through the door.
But something has happened recently which has forced bouncers to become a little less discerning on who they let into their bar or club. In a word, it is called competition. During the 1990s local authorities cottoned on to the value of encouraging a night-time economy on their doorstep. They granted late night licenses to premises in close proximity to each other. Bouncers could now see for themselves exclusivity meant that an unhappy punter would simply move to the next bar and spend their money there. In short, exclusivity had to go if a club was to be full of paying customers. Trainers were allowed in. Maybe not everywhere, but they are no longer automatically banned.
Reading Disco Biscuits the other week (review is below) was a reminder that every generation likes to get wasted. “Binge Drink” Britain is hardly a new phenomenon. Nor is it peculiarly British. Plenty of bevvy is thrown to the back of European and Antipodean throats too.
What is new, is it is easier for media companies and disapproving documentary filmmakers to locate the area of town the Local Authority has granted a slew of late night licenses. All the drinking is now in one part of town, rather than dispersed to separate parts of a town centre or the suburbs. Pitch up a camera there and edit the clips in order to max up the outrage of Middle Britain.

It is very easy for certain middle aged parents to forget their own past. The Disco Biscuits collection reminds us that we were all young once.

"Disco Biscuits" edited by Sarah Champion

A desire for some 1990s nostalgia drew me to this collection of short stories. The most striking thing is how little has actually changed. Of course there are superficial changes, but the essentials are still with us. People continue to want to get as intoxicated now as then, for example.
This is a fairly decent collection of short stories that have aged well. Highlights include:
• Sangria, where the arrival of a hypnotist to a Mediterranean island disrupts the night-clubbing status quo.
• Heart of the Bass, as four ravers from Edinburgh arrive at a party in Loch Fyne.
• Mile High Meltdown, be thankful the story is fiction the next time you travel by plane.
• The Sparrow, a poem on gang land.
A further discussion on the themes from Disco Biscuits is to follow. In the meantime, this book gets 3/5.

Guns and Butter

Some of you may have noticed that there is a new government in town. This leaves LBR in a quandary. Naturally a Labour leaning blog, one cannot claim to be realistic and partisan at the same time.
Therefore this blog will applaud good behaviour by the current administration, whilst con-deming (gettit?) partisan, ideologically driven and unrealistic policy. For example, your correspondent expects that drug policy will continue to stumble along its current harm-enhancing trajectory. Yet there has been a surprising example where not just the government but the leader can be praised.
In the last week, a quiet corner of the UK has experienced a terrible series of shootings that Europeans like to think are exclusively an American problem. Dreadful though the murders in Cumbria were, and tempting though it may have been, ‘Call me Dave’ Cameron has refused to issue knee jerk legislation to impose greater controls on the ownership of firearms. This being even more tempting as it could so easily have slipped into Cameron’s narrative of ‘broken Britain.’
Maybe it is the point in the election cycle where the Con-Dems don’t feel the need to pander to populist knee jerk sentiment, or that he feels he will have enough on his plate with budget cuts and the like. He may not want to concern himself with guns when he has to decide how much butter to withhold from the public. And although he has not ruled out any legislation in the medium to long term, it would be wrong to tinker with the current legislation for two reasons.
Firstly, legislation on the fly is a bad idea. The Dangerous Dogs Act (1991) is the classic case where an unenforceable law, easily avoided, brought in to protect the public, was rushed through under a storm of media and public outrage to ‘do something.’ Since 1991, attacks by dangerous dogs have occurred sporadically leaving the public no safer and stakeholders such as the RSPCA unsatisfied with the act. In fact, it is pretty hard to find many that will defend the act.
Secondly, although gun control is useful, prohibition is generally a bad idea. And let’s be frank, anyone talking about the need for legislation post the Cumbria shootings will generally want to discuss banning all firearms full stop. After the Dunblane massacre in 1996, the Labour Government in 1997 introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, effectively prohibiting and banning handguns, although it curiously does not cover Northern Ireland. No matter, murders and shootings involving hand guns are still as rare as they were before the act. Crucially though criminals with illegal intent can still obtain a handgun if they so require. Innocent use of a handgun (and there are innocent uses) has been prohibited, but their availability on the streets of the UK has not.

So far so good for ‘call me Dave’ on this one.

"Blind Eye" by Stuart MacBride

If you take MacBride’s work seriously Aberdeen has a major crime problem. And not just ordinary crime either. In MacBride’s world Aberdeen is in the constant grip of the most macabre and gruesome crime wave the human mind can imagine.
Thankfully, MacBride is not meant to be taken seriously. Aberdeen isn’t as bad as he portrays, and there is a humour to his novels that other crime fiction avoids, which indicates the author knows his work isn’t meant to be taken literally.
In his novels, MacBride follows well trodden enough crime conventions, although “Blind Eye” is noticeable for being more ambitious than his earliest novels, a process that started with “Flesh House.” Such is the ambition that the protagonist, Logan McRae, even gets a wee trip abroad.
The convention MacBride follows is thus: Gruesome Crime – Investigation by over worked police – plot leads to a suspect – somebody else is subsequently guilty, and they get caught eventually. All the while the reader follows Logan McRae navigate the investigation, police politics and a complicated social life, with varying degrees of success and failure.
A welcome relief from Rankin’s Rebus novels, MacBride’s work is entertaining enough, though it is not convention busting, whilst being steady and consistent. Just be thankful it isn’t real life. Even the weather in Aberdeen is better than MacBride makes out. This book gets 3/5.

"Fiasco" by Thomas E. Ricks

Any review of a book on the Iraq war, invasion 2003 that is, will be sorely tempted to revisit the arguments on support or opposition to that war. So let’s get this out of the way first: In 2003 this reviewer was against the war. That said, it is not inconsistent to take the view that both the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan need to be concluded successfully to serve Western interests best.

Now to the book; Ricks has admitted that this book is nothing more than a “narrative history” of the events (p441). He picks up the story in 2002 and finishes 2005, and writes a postscript to the paper-back edition in mid-2006. Observant readers will notice this is incomplete, but Ricks continues the story with “The Gamble” (published in 2009 and to be reviewed later this year.)

Other than the time line, the story is not complete. There are very few voices other than American ones. As the intervention was mainly an American adventure it is not surprising that very few voices from the rest of the coalition of the willing (or unwilling, p347-8). The real omission is the lack of voices from Iraqis, especially insurgent Iraqis. Ricks does explain that the level and nature of the insurgency was such that it was too dangerous for any journalist to explore beyond Green Zone Baghdad to find them. Al-Qaeda can have no complaints. If they wanted their voice heard, kidnapping and decapitating western hostages sent its own message of discouragement to any intrepid journalist willing to listen to insurgents.

So Ricks has clearly interviewed and researched from the people he can, the insurgent Iraqi voice will need to wait till a later date. But boy does Ricks do a mighty fine job with the material he has. This is a valuable book that highlights the pit falls of invasion without a coherent and pragmatic occupation strategy needed post-conflict, post regime change. The insurgency grew after a successful invasion, and the Americans were without a coherent strategy to combat it.

Ricks concludes pessimistic about the chances of success in Iraq. Petraeus’s ‘surge’ since 2006 have given cause for cautious optimism. It is this reviewer’s judgement that some form of intervention will be needed at least half way through this decade. I also do expect to see US military bases in Iraq for some considerable time beyond then, and indeed the life of the insurgency. President Bush, criticised his predecessor Clinton for being a ‘nation-builder,’ and yet has committed his country to do just that for the foreseeable future, in not just Iraq but Afghanistan too.

Beevor’s review on the front cover is most telling; the story is “Almost beyond belief.” Almost.

Not for the faint hearted. Valuable and thought-provoking, this book gets 3/5.

"Maya" by Alastair Campbell

Steve Watkins, the protagonist has a fatal flaw. Whilst we wait for this to finally prove his downfall, Campbell has managed to produce a work that is a satire of 24 hour rolling news as well as the cult of celebrity. This is a page-turning and gripping thriller.

One point of contention however, is that Campbell has an opportunity to do something interesting with the issue of drugs when one of the characters enters rehab. Yet, he contents himself with a tedious and conventional anti-drug narrative. To the extent where even the protagonist, no friend of the rehab-ee, blandly says he hopes he gets the help he needs in rehab.

An even more minor point. The bio notes on this novel refer to Campbell as a strategist. For any student of Strategic Studies, Campbell definition of strategy is unhelpful. He certainly understands the difference between tactics and strategy (p178 of the novel demonstrates Campbell understands the distinction.) However, no matter how angry Campbell got working for Tony Blair, he never once rolled the tanks into the offending media.

Still, the plot races along nicely and is very entertaining. This book gets 3/5.

The damning silence over North Korea

Two boats. Two different continents.

Both have received loss of life and calls for action through the UN have been heard. Yet it is curious one receives more attention than the other. Even more so when you consider that the loudest calls are heard over the boat with the least amount of dead.

But of course, one involves Israel and the other the frozen conflict on the Korean peninsula.

An independent investigation has concluded that North Korea deliberately sank a South Korean vessel. 45 sailors died. Yet a near silence descended from all the major capitals of the world. With the exception of, South Korea, obviously, and their ally the USA. But the most interesting statement came from Beijing. They incredulously, and with a straight face, called for an 'independent' investigation, as if that is not what had already happened.

Compare this to the Israeli attack on the convoy headed for the Gaza strip. The usual suspects have all been lining up to condemn Israel. It is this columns solemn view that North Korea's crime has been far worse than the allegations against Israel. Especially considering that all the facts about the Gaza convoy incident have not come in.

Shame on those that wish to condemn Israel, but are not at least equally angry with the greater loss of life at the hand of the North Koreans.